1865: The Lawrence Charbonneau family in Boonville, N.Y.

First in a series about my paternal Charbonneau and Zinsk ancestors in New York State’s Adirondack region during the 1800s.

January is here, and winter is settling over the Adirondack foothills. What better time to resume the search for details about my Québecois immigrant great, great grandfather Lawrence Charles Charbonneau in the Town of Forestport, Oneida County, New York.

When last I wrote about Lawrence in A Charboneau by any other surname variant, I was grappling with the multitude of surname spellings that was frustrating my search for records of my gg grandfather’s early years in upstate New York.

He last appeared with his family of origin as Laurent Charbonneau, 20, in the 1851-52 Canadian Census for St. Eustache, Deux Montagnes, Québec — chronicled in 1852: Charbonneau family of St. Eustache.

Presumably he moved south into New York State some time after that Canadian census — but when? In hopes of finding an answer, I began a series of online U.S. and New York State census searches working through the various census-taker spellings of Charbonneau.

The ages, birthplaces, occupation and and family structure in this census report coincide with other records in my files for the Lawrence Charbonneau family. So, despite the surname variant, this appears to be my gg grandfather’s family.

My great grandfather Will Charboneau (who later shortened his surname by dropping an n) appears here for the first time as a child at age 7 — putting his birth at about 1858 in Oneida County, New York.

Based on this information, Lawrence likely settled in New York State some time between 1851-52 (when he last appeared in the Canadian census) and 1857 (the year before his son was born Oneida County, N.Y.) — a span of about 5 years.

My great, great grandmother’s details

Also of interest are the details on my Swiss immigrant great, great grandmother (maiden name: Zinsk) — which suggest new avenues for research.

Her given name here is Angeline — which appears in other records I have for her. But in most later records, her given name is Ursula. Was Angeline her middle name? Perhaps for that reason, was it the name she went by in everyday life? Hence the one she gave to the census taker in 1865?

Next to her name in Column 11 (“Of how many children the parent.”) the census taker wrote three — yet only Will is enumerated in this 1865 census. What became of the other two children?